


Of Course, it was Hunk's Fault.

by JunoSteelOwnsMyHeart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 15:34:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19232002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunoSteelOwnsMyHeart/pseuds/JunoSteelOwnsMyHeart
Summary: In the heat of battle, Keith's Galran genes take over. Now, he's stuck in limbo - not quite human, not quite Galra, and with far better hearing than usual. Given how much Lance complains, the last one is what gets them into trouble.Galra!Keith, and everything is Hunk's fault.





	Of Course, it was Hunk's Fault.

“One more time. What happened?”

 

Pidge hardly looked up from her screen as she circled Keith again, scanning him. Keith did not look happy with all the attention. He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was fighting some soldiers, keeping the exit open for you, like I was supposed to,” he paused as Lance nodded, making sure they were listening. “One of them was a lot bigger and stronger and just better trained than his men. I was fighting him, and I was really tired, like I’m-about-to-get-cut-in-half-by-a-giant-Galra-sword tired, when I felt something sorta shift like I had changed to a higher gear or something.” 

 

Pidge rolled her eyes. “You didn’t notice?”

 

“I thought it was just an adrenaline rush until Lance pointed it out.” 

 

She shrugged. “Fair enough, I guess. I wouldn’t know. Just uhh, let me know if you feel weird. Or something. I guess. Shit, I don’t know how to deal with this. You still read as mostly human, or at least you match your other readings from before, and the lions still recognize you, so I’m gonna guess that nothing’s really wrong.” 

 

“Thanks,” Keith muttered with a wince. To Lance, it sounded more like a question. Before he could ask, Keith had jumped off the table and darted from the room, clearly eager to not be the center of attention any longer. 

 

With a nod to Pidge, Lance followed him, slinging an arm over Keith’s shoulders. In his other hand, Lance carried an ice pack and a pile of bandages. 

 

“C’mon, let’s put some ice on your lip.” 

 

Keith shrugged off the arm. “I’m fine, Lane.” 

 

“Sure you are. I wasn’t really asking though.” 

 

Keith sighed, but let Lance lead him to the lounge, and leaned against the back of a couch with the ice pack on his face without complaint. Or at least, without too much complaint. 

 

Lance bustled around him, sticking band-aids on every scrape he could find. Finally, Keith knocked his hand away with a small smile. 

 

“Lance! Stop it!”

 

Lance smiled too. Rolling his eyes, he sat on the top of the couch next to Keith. “She’s not mad at you, you know. It’s just a lot for her to take in.” 

 

Keith nodded. “I keep telling myself she’ll come around, but…” When he trailed off, Lance put a hand on his shoulder. 

 

“She will.” Allura had disappeared nearly as soon as Keith had gotten back on the ship, and even though she hadn’t said anything - anything at all - her silence was weighing on Keith. It had been bad enough when she had found out he was part Galra. For him to look the part… Lance shook his head to clear the train of thought. Gently, he peeled back the ice pack, checking on Keith’s swollen lip. “Still hurt?” 

 

When Keith shook his head, Lance brushed his thumb gently across Keith’s cheek, then jumped back as if he had been electrocuted. He blushed a deep red, and before either one of them could speak, Lance had bustled out of the room, stuttering excuses. 

 

Halfway to his room, Lance sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. He was an idiot. He was always an idiot around Keith, and his new habit of running his tongue across his newly elongated canines - equal parts adorably confused and weirdly hot - was not helping Lance’s ability to think straight.

 

He huffed a laugh at his own expense. Not that he managed much of anything  _ straight _ . But bad gay jokes aside, Lance was still an idiot. 

 

He took a sharp turn as he approached his door, swerving into Hunk’s room. 

 

“I am an idiot,” Lance announced as he flopped down on the bed. 

 

Hunk laughed. “Galra Keith, huh?” 

 

“Ughhhhhhh.” 

 

Hunk just laughed. “Dude, it’s been like an hour. How’d you mess this up already?” 

 

“He cut his lip.” Lance sounded like that was supposed to explain everything. Hunk just raised his eyebrows and gestured for Lance to go on. “So I got him an ice-pack, right? And we were in the lounge because Pidge was starting to stress him out, even though he wouldn’t say it, and I was putting band-aids all over him to try to get him to laugh, and he smiled, so I moved the ice to check on his lip and I sortakindaheldhisfaceinmyhandandbrushedmythumboverhischeek - andhesgonna **hatemeforever** !!!” Lance sped up with each word, the last few syllables melting into a sort of ongoing screech. 

 

Hunk poked him in the shoulder. “Shush. He’s not gonna hate you. He’s gonna turn bright red, run to the training deck, kill some robots, then rant to his lion for half an hour until he stumbles upon me or Shiro or Pidge, then he’s gonna say something really cryptic and emo, and then he’s gonna disappear for an hour to brood.” Hunk smiled because apparently that was designed to make Lance feel better. 

 

If that was the intent, he failed miserably. 

 

Lance just groaned again. “Not helping!!” 

 

Hunk shrugged. “You guys have been tiptoeing around this for months, Lance. I don’t know how else to help you.” 

 

“I don't know, Hunk! Tell me I’m an idiot, or that I absolutely should not be this attracted to Keith or that I need to snap the hell out of it or  **something** ! Don’t just sit there and laugh while I’m dying!” He stretched the end of ‘dying’ out into a groan. 

 

Hunk sat next to him and sympathetically patted Lance on the shoulder. In the beat of silence, they heard a quiet whooshing sound - a door opening - and then the light patter of fading footsteps. 

 

Lance sat up so quickly he nearly headbutted Hunk. With a barked curse, he was out the door and halfway down the hallway. 

 

“Lance! Where are you going?”

 

He didn’t answer Hunk, choosing instead to keep running. 

 

*

Keith didn’t know what to do with himself. With his hands, with his face, with his incessant blush. When Lance had left, he had simply stood for a moment, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. And then, as he came slowly to his senses, Keith realized three things:

 

(1) Lance was long gone;

(2) Whatever the hell this was would end up causing a serious problem sooner or later;

And (3), he could still hear Lance’s fading footsteps. Which meant his hearing was much much better than he had realized before. 

 

Not knowing what else to do, Keith had trailed awkwardly after Lance, with the half-formed intent of changing his clothes and going to the training deck to spar for a while. Hoping, with the part of his mind still functioning rationally, that that would clear his head. Instead, he arrived just as Lance had begun to complain in earnest, catching just the tail end of his conversation with Hunk. 

 

Catching the part of Lance’s rant that was about him. 

 

Keith ducked into the nearest doorway - his own room - and waited for Lance to hear him. Even with human ears, the other two should have noticed his footsteps. Hunk’s door was still open, after all. 

 

In the end, Keith did change, although his destination wasn’t the training deck anymore. Lance was panicked, and he had a feeling he knew where the Blue paladin would end up. 

 

*

Keith could tell before he was within eyesight of the door that Lance had gravitated to the pool, just as he had expected. He smiled a little - it was nice to get a little confirmation that he really did know Lance. He padded into the glimmering white space (Allura had shown them a week ago how to make the pool more ‘human’) just as Lance surfaced. 

 

He pulled himself out of the pool gracefully, landing on the edge, his feet kicking in the water. Keith couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering just a little - down Lance’s tan chest to almost offensively good abs, and then back to his face. His expression almost made Keith turn and walk away - rested and content and happy, completely in his element. And then Lance looked up and smiled at him, and his chance to slip away was gone. 

 

“Hey,” Keith called. Lance waved a hand through the air, gesturing for Keith to come and sit. He obliged. 

 

Only when Keith had sat down on the edge of the pool did Lance return his greeting. “So what else changed?” 

 

It took Keith a second to pull himself back to reality. Staring at Lance was way easier than it should have been. “What?”   
  


“Your teeth, obviously, but what else changed? With the whole Galra thing?”

 

“Oh. Uhh, my senses are just a lot better now, I think. Also, this.” Keith shoved aside his hair, tilting his head so Lance could better see his ears. Not fully Galra and not fully human, they were pointed and a little longer, but still mostly normal looking.

 

“You have elf ears.” Lance looked like he was barely controlling his grin. 

 

“Uhhhh…” 

 

“I’m sorry about earlier, by the way. I shouldn’t have done that.” 

 

When Keith just shrugged, Lance smiled in a way that was almost… shy? 

 

“You heard me talking to Hunk?”

 

Keith nodded. 

 

Lance blushed, just a little, and rolled his eyes. “I knew it would be Hunk’s fault.”

 

“Knew what would be Hunk’s fault?”    
  


“You finding out.” 

 

He was so nonchalant as he shrugged that Keith had to mentally rewind to make sure he knew what they were talking about. Lance continued. 

 

“I’m sorry about all this.” 

 

Keith noticed distantly that his blush was crawling back. He turned his head. It was much easier to talk to the water than to the boy sitting next to him. “It’s fine.” After a pause, he asked, “How are you so calm about this?”   
  


Lance laughed a little. “I’m pretty used to rejection, Keith.”

 

“I’m-I’m not here to…”

 

“To tell me you don’t reciprocate? You sure?”

 

“Pretty damn sure, Lance. Kinda the opposite, actually.”

 

“You… You…?”

 

Keith rolled his eyes. “No wonder they wanted to make you a fighter pilot. You’re an idiot. Of course, I do.” 

 

Lance leaned towards the water, splashing Keith’s legs. “Rude!”

 

He smiled a bit at that, and slowly, his smile melted into a true grin. 

 

Lance sucked in a sharp breath when Keith’s smile widened. “Do that again.” 

 

“Do what again?”

 

“When you smiled, you poked your tongue out a little.” 

 

“I did?”

 

“Mmmhmm.” 

 

Keith looked away again. “I don’t understand you.” 

 

When Lance spoke, his voice was suddenly serious. “You don’t smile enough, or even very much. And… I like it when you do.” 

 

Keith could tell just by his voice that Lance was blushing bright red. Slowly, he smiled. When he met Lance’s eyes, and when Lance smiled too, Keith knew he made the right choice. 

 

This could ruin everything. But it could also make everything so so  _ so _ much better. Which is why, when Keith found himself reaching for Lance’s hand, his smile didn’t do anything but grow. 

 

“Is this ok?” 

 

Lance took a breath. “It’s better than ok, Mullet.”

 

“Now? You choose now to make fun of my hair.” 

 

He shook his head as he laughed. “I’m not gonna make your life any easier.” 

 

“Good.” When Lance’s eyebrows shot up in question, Keith bit his lip. “I mean, you’ve never made my life easy. But I don’t want you to.” 

 

“No?”

 

“I think it’s always going to be complicated. But that might not be a bad thing.” 

 

Lance nodded slowly. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all.” And then, giving Keith all the time in the world to lean away or move, he raised his unoccupied hand to Keith’s cheek, the same way he had earlier. All Keith did was lean into him, just slightly. Lance’s eyes traveled slowly from Keith’s eyes to his mouth. “I really want to kiss you.” 

 

Keith nodded. 

 

This time, Lance didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. 

 

When they broke apart, it was only because they were both smiling too much to continue the kiss. 

 

Lance pressed a soft kiss to Keith’s cheek, wrapping his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “Just to clarify one thing.”

 

“Mmm?”

 

“I’m an idiot?” His smile told Keith that he was teasing, that their usual brand of bickering wasn’t going to disappear. Keith was ok with that. 

 

“Well, you just chose to kiss me, so I would go with… yes.” 

 

As he rolled his eyes, Lance tried to shove Keith towards the water. But Keith, somehow, was faster, wrapping his arm around Lance’s waist - dragging him into the pool too. 

 

When the surfaced, arms still locked around each other, Lance was giggling. Keith stood for a moment, mesmerized by the light dancing on his face. 

 

“Lance?”

 

“You sure about this?” 

 

“What?”

 

“I mean… I’m not the best with people. Or relationships, or human contact or  _ anything _ like this.” 

 

Lance shrugged. “I’m pretty aware of that.” 

 

“I just…” He broke off, unsure of where his rambling train of thought was going. Lance just smiled. 

 

“We’re gonna figure it out. But yeah, I’m pretty damn sure, Keith.” 

 

When Keith kissed him again, it was all Lance could do to keep Keith from knocking them both back into the water. 


End file.
